EP: Born Of Osiris – The Eternal Reign

Bringing technical metal to the forefront, with the sound of metalcore inspired guitars and death metal inspired vocals, comes Chicago’s Born Of Osiris. With influences ranging from Killswitch Engage all the way to Meshuggah, it’s pretty easy to see where the band gets their chops from on their latest output, ‘The Eternal Reign’.

‘Empires Erased’ is a great example of the band’s dexterity, pushing a nu-metal beat with syncopated bass rhythms from David Da Rocha, allowing guitarist Lee McKinney to weave an intricate and beautiful riff over the top of the mix alongside Ronnie Canizaro‘s harsh screaming. This is just one of many examples of the band displaying their trademark sound.

Another class example is on ‘Open Arms To Damnation’, which shows the beautifully textured keyboards over the track by Joe Buras, showing his intense range as a musician. ‘Abstract Art’ sees Buras again blending to the rest of the instruments, and seems to be further weaved in giving the rest of the band space to move the song forward until we reach the 2-minute mark. From here is where the instruments takes centre stage, giving a drifting and emotive effect within the context of the piece.

A great sense of djent is seen on ‘Brace Legs’, where drummer Cameron Losch plays blast beats that an act like Suffocation would be proud of alongside the surrounding choppy musicianship, bringing an altogether heavier effect. The band seem like they work together throughout the track, and it makes them seem great as a coherent unit.

One of the few minor criticisms a casual fan can pick up with an act like this is that, whilst it’s technically brilliant, a lot of their songs can sound similar in regards to what the musicians are doing over the tracks, and the similar vocal patterns. This is balanced, however, by the overall quality of the band themselves, and doesn’t remain all that much of a problem in the long run.

Whilst not doing anything strictly new, Born Of Osiris manage to push old themes from djent, nu-metal and progressive metal very well. For it to end on a spacey theme from the keyboards before the familiar bass comes in and crushes on closing track ‘Glorious Day’, it works incredibly well. There’s masses of potential within this band, but at the minute, the songs feel too samey to push them to that next level.